Barbados Blackbelly

Richard Ligon documented the island's sheep in 1657, both European wooled sheep and West African hair sheep. By 1750 only the hair sheep remained; the heat had made the decision.

Every pure Barbados Blackbelly in the United States traces to one importation. Dr. Lemuel Goode of North Carolina State brought a small number in directly from the island in the 1970s. That flock was sold to a private breeder in 1996, and a handful of breeders then formed an informal cooperative to hold on to the genetics that were left, because the breed was in the process of disappearing here.

The coloring is reddish brown or tan, with black belly, black legs, and black bars on the face. Rams carry a mane of thick hair down the neck and brisket, and the eyes read distinctly red. The Conservancy puts rams at 100 to 130 pounds and ewes at 85 to 100.

They are unusually prolific for a tropical sheep, with litters averaging about two lambs, and they can lamb twice a year under good management.

Alert and docile, by the Conservancy's description, and rated for novice to intermediate keepers.

They are sociable animals that want to be in a group, so do not plan on keeping one or two.

Meat, on ground and in weather that defeats wool breeds. There is no shearing and no docking to schedule, which suits small flocks and small properties.

The twice-yearly lambing potential is the economic argument: more lambs per ewe per year from an animal that costs little to keep.

It sheds rather than needing shearing, handles heat, and does well on poor pasture. The Conservancy's phrase is that they can survive on poor pasture and in hot environments.

If you push for two lamb crops a year, feed and condition management have to keep up with the ewes; the prolificacy is real but not free.

The Livestock Conservancy lists the Barbados Blackbelly as Threatened in the United States. Worldwide the breed is secure, an estimated 158,000 head in 2015, most of them in the Caribbean; it is the US population, with its single-importation base, that is fragile.

Get this distinction right before you buy. Barbados Blackbelly sheep are naturally polled. They were used to create the American Blackbelly, which is a separate modern breed with horns and more size. One association represents breeders of both, but only the Barbados Blackbelly is on the Conservation Priority List, and this catalog lists the two separately for that reason.

That one association is the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Association International, and it keeps separate books for the two breeds. Ask which book the animal is registered in. If the seller describes a horned Barbados Blackbelly, what they have is an American Blackbelly.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.